In large scale photofinishing plants or photo processing labs, the incoming films are removed from their order bags and are spliced together prior to processing into a large roll of typically about seventy-five films. At the time of splicing, the splicing machine applies an identification number to the splice on each film and to its respective order bag in which the film arrived at the lab.
The roll of spliced films is then developed, after which the developed roll is passed through a notcher or notching machine. This notcher scans the image area of the films and determines the center of each image. The machine then makes a small notch in the edge of the film to identify each frame. The purpose of the notch is to allow a subsequent printer to properly position the images of the film for printing of the images.
The next step in the usual prior system is to expose the frames of the developed film onto a roll of print paper. This is accomplished by the printer. The roll of print paper is then developed, and it is inspected for prints that are to be discarded (rejects) and prints that are to be made over to improve quality (remakes). Small black patches of tape usually are placed on the reject or remake prints to later be detected in a print cutter for sorting purposes.
Then, the roll of film, the roll of prints, and the corresponding stack of order bags are delivered to the packaging area of the lab where manual packaging is performed. This step puts the film and prints into the original order bag for return to the customer. A typical packaging material is a paper "wallet" having two pockets, one for the finished prints and one for the developed negatives. This paper wallet is placed in the order bag for return to the location (i.e., drugstore, etc.) where the film was originally left by the customer for developing.
The basic steps involved in packaging are:
1. Cut the prints from a continuous roll of print paper onto which they have been exposed (printed) and developed.
2. Cut into short pieces the roll of films (negatives) from the continuous roll of films into which they were spliced for processing and printing.
3. Check to see if the prints are the ones that match the negatives and if the negatives are the ones that belong to the order bag.
4. Insert the negatives and prints into the wallet and fold it closed.
5. Insert the wallet into the order bag and close its flap.
6. Calculate the price of the order and print it on the bag.
It sometimes is necessary to dispense one or two of the wallets depending on the number of prints (e.g., two sets) made for a given order. It also may be necessary to provide randomly fed wallets with graphics unique to one customer or another.
As noted above, such packaging presently is performed manually, and is a high cost, low productivity, labor intensive bottleneck in photo processing labs.